Olympus E5

There have been a lot of posts and rumours over the past few months about the Olympus E3 successor and even if it will actually be made.  I found one recently by Bill Beebe that has a short wish list for the new Olympus Pro body.  I share most of his wishes but after seeing a fake mockup on a dpreview forum, I'm drooling over what could be.

Just a pipe dream, but the idea of an integrated grip really appeals to me.  I always leave on my battery grip as it is and think that an integrated one would be better in so many ways (smaller and more weather sealed than a separate grip and better ergonomics).  I like the dual screens and the button layout.  I imagine the camera could actually be significantly smaller than the E3 and grip.  If I could have some other wishes they would be:

• Much improved ISO performance.  I don't expect it to be as good as my Canon 5DmkII, but a usable ISO 3200 would be nice indeed.  I should say this would go with better dynamic range.
• Faster frame rate.  I'm just being greedy here.  5 frames per second is fast enough, but I'd like to see it class leading, around 10 or 11.
• A reclaim of the throne for "fastest focusing camera in the world" with the SWD lenses (we will see more SWD lenses right Olympus?).  
• An improvement on Continuous Focusing performance that rivals the Canon 7D.
• A continuation on excellent build quality and weather sealing like already in the E3.
• A much bigger LCD with much much higher resolution.  I know this is going to get me mobbed, but I don't really care about whether it flips or not.  It is neat, but not necessary.  
• Wireless flash improvements, especially something where they had a built in Pocket Wizard TTL setup.  That would be industry leading and awesome.  Of course they would need new flashes, and since they do, I wouldn't mind more from the FL50R successor like more power and better zoom and recycle time.

Things I could care less if it had:

• More megapixels.  I've printed large from the 10 already in the E3 and my computer slows noticeably with the 21 of the Canon dslr I already have.  I'm sure they need to pump it up some to make some folks happy, but keep it 14 or so please.
• video.  It will have it, but I could care less.

Now if Olympus were listening to me (hey, you never know!) then they would have to finally release a small weather sealed dslr or micro four thirds camera to make those people that have been wishing for it happy.  It could be an E620 refreshed with some weather sealing.  

Is Olympus going to even put this camera out?  I don't know.  I'm starting to doubt it.  I have the legendary 35-100 f2.0 lens coming from LensLenders this week which I'm looking forward to trying.  If I could be sure a new pro body was coming I'd very likely purchase that lens and its 150mm f2.0 cousin which would nicely round out my lens lineup.  But before I drop $5000+ on lenses, the cameras have to be there.  Kirk Tuck has a similar post right now on his blog.

In the meantime, my next gear purchase will be a Canon prime lens (haven't really figured that out yet) and I'm thinking very much about getting a continuous light to play with during portraits and weddings.  I'm interested in playing with WYSISYG lighting and I'm considering the Lowel Blender LED light.  

If all this gear talk is too much for you, just don't go reading this review by Steve Huff of the Leica S2.  Ultimate gear envy.

PMA is over so I expect we will hit a gear lull for a while.  No matter, just more time for actual photography!

Yeah Canada!

Just a quick interlude to say yeah!  Most gold by Canada ever in a winter Olympics and the cherry on top was that awesome Gold medal win by the hockey team!  YEAH!

OK, now back to photography.  :)

Evolution

Very interesting website HERE.  Now that I've bought a Canon 5DmkII I figure Muphy's Law will have Olympus release the E5, the new camera will rock and I'll be sorry I bought something else.  Of course if I hadn't bought the Canon, Olympus would have never released another camera.  Damn Murphy.

While I'm waiting for the clicker to tick down, I'm scanning film negatives again.  It has been a while since I did this but I'm still about 1500 negatives behind on my scanning.  I'm so glad I bought a Drobo to hold those 67mb tiff files!  Between scanning and starting to use my 21 megapixel Canon, the 4 one terabyte drives I put in there are going to fill up mighty fast I think.  I have noticed that my iMac, which was blazingly fast with Lightroom and Photoshop while manipulating my Olympus E3 files, is chugging a bit when using the Canon files.  Editing a whole wedding might make a huge difference in time as I wait for the spinning beach ball.  I'm maxed out on RAM too, so this could be trouble.

Before I go, and I can't remember if I mentioned this earlier, but there is now a lens rental company in Canada that ships Olympus lenses (as well as Canon and Nikon)!  I rented the 35-100 f2.0 for an upcoming wedding in March as it is a lens I've been wanting to buy but haven't managed to save for yet.  A review of Lens Lenders (and that mythical Olympus lens) will follow after my experience with my first lens rental.

Guest Speakers and a Book Review

OK, before I forget to mention it.  Andre Gallant is giving a talk at the Nanaimo Photo Club on April 13th. Tickets for non-club members are $20 and you can get them by contacting the photo club.  Honestly they don't often get a lot of speakers that are really appealing, so this is something to look forward too.

I just finished reading a book by Kirk Tuck called "Minimalist Lighting: Professional Techniques for Location Photography."  I'm not going to go into a long review of the book, but if you are interested in it you can find it in the Amazon link on the top right of the blog.  I've already leant the book out to a friend, so I don't really have it at hand anymore, which is why I won't go into huge detail.  Generally though the book goes through gear that you need to start out on the strobist path of lighting.  Meaning, what do  you need to get going without using big studio strobes.  Kirk is a commercial photographer, and I bought the book as I really enjoy following his blog, and he shows us why as a working photographer you just might want to reconsider spending cash on the big Profoto gear.  While all of the gear information can be found freely on the web, it is nice to have it all in paper right in front of you for easy reference, especially if you are just getting started.  The information is current (for now) and is a really good primer for those unsure of using small lights.  Coming from the perspective of a working pro, you get a lot of good information about what you need and don't need as well.  Of course, as with all of these books, the information is only as current as the publishing date.  For gear hounds and strobist freaks you are better off sticking to online information.  For everyone else, you will find Kirk's language and approach to be friendly and easy to understand.  The best part of the book for me were the 'case studies' in the back of the book where he walks you through his thinking, lighting and results of several commercial portrait shoots using small lights.  If you have been looking for an approachable strobist book, then I really recommend this one.  If not, well just ignore the above paragraph!  :)

Lastly, the Olympus EPL-1  is really intriguing me.  I was going to plunk down on the EP-2, but for about half the cash and the same features, the new guy on the block has me intrigued.  For those that were interested in the EP-1, it is really being cleared out in stores now at cheap prices.  And for those, if anyone, that have been reading my Canon conundrum, I ended up buying the 5DmkII after deciding the 1DmkIV was too much money for me right now.  I plan a review of the camera as well as a forensic review of my E3 in the coming weeks.  So far though, the ability to shoot stress free at ISO 6400 is pretty amazing.

It's Here...The Little Pen

Well it is here.  The EPL1.  I love that it has the attachment port for the viewfinder and microphone, is small and at $600 is really affordable.  Olympus is being really smart here by attempting to gain market share before the other companies jump into this market.





Big question for me is does the on board flash fire remote flashes?  If so, that makes this the camera of choice even over its more expensive EP-2 cousin.

Born Into Brothels

I think I'm a bit behind the curve here, but I just watched Born Into Brothels for the first time today.  This is a really moving, sad, disturbing and interesting documentary.  It is of particular interest to photographers who might wonder how their art can impact the world.  I didn't hear about this documentary until about a month or so ago and I'm glad I finally rented it.  Anyway, if you are like me and haven't checked it out, I highly recommend it and as a father of a young daughter I must say I'm thankful for how blessed I am to be able to raise my child in Canada.

Quickly here is the mission statement of Kids With Cameras:

Kids with Cameras was founded in 2002 by photographer Zana Briski out of her work teaching photography to children in Calcutta's red-light district. We believe that photography is an effective tool in igniting children's imagination and building self-esteem. We believe in the power of art to transform lives, for both the artist and the viewer.